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THE ROCK ISLAXD ARGUS . TH URSDAY, JULY 10, 1913. 7 Tavertner Heard on Lobby Before House Congressman Clyde H. Tavenner has again linen tn his neat to be heard In the lower house. This time it is on the lobby question, anent which the Congressional Record says: Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Speaker, I wish to ask unanimously consent to extend my remarks in the Record on the sub ject of lobbies. The Speaker. The gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Tavenner; asks unani mous consent to extend his remarks in the Record on the subject of lob bies, la there objection? Mr. Mann. Reserving the right to object, Mr. Speaker, may I ask my colleague whether it is his intention to insert in the Record one of hid en tertaining newspaper articles pub lished throughout the country, so that congress may have the same infor mation that he gives to others? President Wilson and the members (nates Into whose pockets the stolen of congress also know that every pen-! millions would have gone had the nv of the extra dividends that the lobby interests will make by virtue of legislation granting them special jrivileges must come from the pockets crime been undiscovered were even called to the bar of justice, let alone prosecuted. Conducting a lobby in Washington of the men, women, and children in by the sugar interests is a business the districts back home. j proposition strictly. The muitimillion- It will be recalled that President j aire sugar magnates, who are every Tcft once faced the same crisis that year adding to their "colossal fortunes r.icn bers of congress face now. He: by millions through the kindness of listened to the voices at his ear Ifc Uncle Sam in giving them a protective V.'.if bington, whom the late Senator tariff which guarantees them a monop Dolliver described as "men who knew;oly of American markets with power exactly what they wanted." Presi- j to charge consumers what they please dent Taft forgot the folks at home! for sugar, can well afford to spend who do not write letters, but who de-, a few hundreds of thousands in the sired tariff revision downward, and, form of 11,000 a month salaries to on the very first election day follow-! slick-tongued lobbyists, if by doing so ing they got revenge. The lobbyists j they can prevent their monopolies and in Washington whose counsel he had ! profits from being interfered with accepted were powerless to save him : Xo hpB th ., n oine n frnm Mr. Tavenner. No. I can inform from the wrath of the home folks who j the fi.ooO-a-month men one would now pouring in upon the Colorado leg islators. ' These companies have made an enormous amount of money, not only upon their capitalization, but upon their overcapitalization Declared Senator Thomas after six years' occupancy the home steader virtually binds himself to la bor for life on the plantation. Why free sugar? Why has all of the bitterness of the tariff battle set tled upon this single commodity, which is one of the cheapest of all foods and Two of them operating in Colorado 1 which at casual glance does not seem the gentleman that I think this will vote, but who maintain no lobbies in Washington. "The trusts and combinations the conrmunism of pelf whose machina tions have prevented us from reach inp the success we deserved, should not be forgotten nor forgiven." Tliese are the words of Grover be even more interesting than any of , my newspaper articles, should I get the permission. The Speaker. Is there objection? j There was no objetion. Mr. Tavenner. Mr. Speaker, in tno election last fail the people elected ; imagine congress had not given the sugar people any opportunity w hatever to be heard. The fact is a committee of 21 members of the house of repre sentatives the ways and means com mittee sat in session for weeks, lis tening to the arguments of those de siring protection. The sugar people were permitted to say any and every thing they desired. The members of - Powerful lobbies are row in Wash-1 miad 'hat the lobbyists did to the ington endeavoring to persuade these wil80a democratic tariff bill in the members of congress to break their lenate in 1894 wnen he denounces the rledges to the people and betray the!10CD:e8 operating in wasnington. members of congress to revise the 1 1 icveiana. He w as rerernng to me tariff on sugar and other necessaries : tariff lobbies which prevented the downward as one step toward the re- democratic party from living up to its th d . committPe sat rluctlon of the ever-increasing cost of campaign promises of 1892. son,ewnat as a court. They considered living. - rslu.ul " uh. "us'ui all the testimony, and then brought in their verdict In the form of the Under wood bilL- After having had a fair deal in open court the sugar trust is now trying to win, as usual, by the underhand method of approaching members of congress in private or working in the dark. The people are at a disadvantage in the face of this kind of warfare, be cause they have no knowledge of the pressure and kind of arguments brought Jto bear on congressmen by consumers of the land, to the end that a few men, already rich beyond the dreams of avarice, may add to their swollen fortunes. , It was to place before the public this state of affairs that President Wilson made his now famous state-, ment, in which, referring to these lob- bies, he said: Washington has seldom 6een so numerous, so industrious, or so in sidious a lobby. There U every evi dence that money without a limit is being spent to sustain this lobby and , to creale an appearance of a pressure of public opinion antagonistic to some of the chief items of the tariff bill. In order that the public might know all of the facts about the condition al luded to by President Wilson, I intro duced a resolution providing for the appointment of a committee of five members of the house of representa tives to investigate the subject. This resolution reads as follows: WhereHS it has been charged by the president of the United States and there is reason to believe that a pow erful and insidious lobby, represent ing interests hostile to the passage of the pending tariff bill in the form adopted by the house of representa tives, is in existence in Washington: and Whereas newspapers are being filled with paid advertisements calcu luted to create an artificial public j opinion against certain items of the I tariff bill: and ! Whereas it is charged and there is reason to believe that unlimited funds A review of what happened to the last democratic tarifT bill as a result of the work of the lobbies while the measure was in the senate is especial ly interesting at this time when spe cial privilege is trying to perform the same old trick of robbing the consum ers of the fruits of their victory at the nn11 On Dec.'lD. 1893, Chairman Wilson. I 6Pecial Privilege. There are no lobby of the democratic wavs and meansists lP Present the viewpoint of the committee, reported its tariff revision (consumers or to disprove the false statements which may be poured into the congressmen's ears by the able and resourceful representatives of the sugar trust. If a man living in California had a lawsuit hefAro a iiirtio in fap-au-au 1 x- downward bill to the house of repre sentatives. It was a fulfillment in nearly every particular of the prom ises made by the democrats in the campaign of 1892, which brought about their election. Although de nounced by the more partisan republ'- New York, and knew that his rival cans as a free-trade measure, it was in the litigation was in the habit of in rpality but a conservative step in j dining with the court ar.d spending an j the direction of freer trade, an;l vf as hour or two daily in private conversa- well received by the democratic party tion with him "in chambers," he would, throughout the country. It made rath- if he was an average human being, er moderate reductions in the duties be inclined to be a little nervous over represen. collectively a capital of $50,000,000, $30,000,000 of which is water pure and simple. Yet they have paid dividends constantly upon their preferred stock, and for a large part of the time on their watered stock, and one of them has a surplus in the treasury in excess of $10,000,000. This fight merely means that these hugely overcapitalized industries want to retain their franchise to rob the people by taxing the necessaries of life, to the end that they may pay profits upon the capital that they have manufactured with printing presses and fountain pens. Senator Thomas' ringing challenge to the sort of public opinion these bloated corporations have manufactur ed deserves to be read in the public scnoois as an example or the new, rugged patriotism which now has con trol of congress. He said: Mr. President, while I have the most profound respect for petitions sent to myself while I am a member of the senate, 1 want to say here and now, and I think I speak for my colleague (Mr. Shafroth) as well as myself, that I was sent here by the people of my state, by the producers and by the consumers, by men and women who are not organised, who have no lobby, who are possessed with no great fund to go out through the highways and byways of the state seeking and ob taining favorable action in their be half by the great banks and associa tions. They are the toilers and the tax payers, 'the common people," as Mr. Lincoln called them. It is their in terest and their welfare, their wants and their desires that I propose to rep resent and promote in the senate of the United States to the best of my ability. They look to us for relief, and we shall not disappoint them. A land of oppression, misery, an 3 sorrow, that is the picture drawn of the Hawaiian sujar plantations by testimony brought out by the senate lobby investigation. The very crowd of men whose legis lative activities in Washington brought forth the recent lobby accusation on woolen goods, cottons, linens, silks, pig iron, steel billets, steel rails, cnitra. glassware, and earthenware. It removed entirely the taxes on wool, coal, iron ore, lumber, and on sugar both raw and refined. Tr.e bill passed the house Feb. 1, the situation. And that is about the way it is with the consumers of the United States. They are just a little bit nervous over the fact that special privilege is paying men $1,000 a month to persuade their representatives to vote for the interests of the tariff 18?4, ty a vote of 182 to 106, 61 mem-j trusts instead of the interests of the bers not voting. But in the senate special privilege consumers. By his recent -peech' In the senate M attacked the bill ferociously, powerful exposing the methods used by the beet looses ueuiR couuuc.eu cmy aim sugar trust to manufacture false and Cri.ein democratic senators, foremost j artificIai pubIic sentinient against the a inns them Gorman of Maryland and ;tariff billj Senator TIl0ma3 of Colora. Trice of Ohio, forgot the solemn ;d0j hag performed a pubHc SPrvlce pieugHs vl luv uemw.aui; ; aecouA only to that of the president of !S.2 and rendered most efficient nave been piacea at tne disposal oi j BervicPB t0 the protected interests, this lobby for the purpose of over- The work of the iobt,ie8 had their1 coming the interests of the public for 'ffect The special-interest service in 1 the private prom oi me interests j tbe 6t,nate obtained one amendment i in calling attention to the insidious tariff lobby, the most powerful which ever operated in Washington. Senator Thomas's speech gives the from President Wilson are the repre sentatives of rich planters whose cruel exploitation of their wage slaves has no counterpart under the stars and stripes. These sugar growers, earning profits of 50 to 90 per cent, and asking for the continuance of a tax of over $100, 000,000 annually on the American peo ple, that they may continue to reap their golden rewards, are coming be fore congress in the name of "protec tion against the pauper labor of Europe," all the while they maintain a labor standard that is a blot on American civilization. So terrible are working conditions in Hawaii that European and Asiatic laborers, deceived into coming to th-j island, literally starve themselves in order to save up passage money for San Francisco, and escape the trap into which they have been inveigled. A horde of these pauper laborers are nopart cf the remitted duties. In all. jtional legislators must Mviihstaod when j their extremity williiij? to work for any .ui:y aucujpi iu pajs laws wnicn tne I I- ie, iaua utrpi eatmg w ages Ol Amerl- which they represent: and Whereas the public maintains lobby and is powerless to reply to the , tDe st nate made 634 changes in the paid advertisements of any lobby rep-1 house measure, destroying entirely its resenting financial interests; and j original character. The people were Whereas bills are pending in con-1 cheated out of their victory at the gress to regulate, and control the oper-j pons. Special privilege had stepped after another, each one restoring s!PUD,ic some idea of the pressure na- j beginning to arrive in California, special interests oppose but which the cans on the Pacific coast. people want. Senator Thomas and his colleague, Senator Shafroth, as well as two rep- Inoidentally, Senator Heed of Mis souri, a member of the lobby commit tee, showed that a report exposing this atlun of lobbies at the national capitol, , jn AD$t Via the lobby route, had de-1 resentatives at large, Edward Keating I condition was written by Daniel F. and it is advisable to gainer any ana j f(.ated the interests of the people. The and t. i. Taylor, were elected in Colo all facts bearing on the aforesaid i bill was passed, but President Cleve- rado last fall on the democratic ticket conditions and charges or in any way, hind refused to sign it. allowing it to by pluralities ranging from 45,000 to relating thereto as a basis for reme-1 become a law without his signature, dial purposes: Therefore be it President Grover Cleveland deserv- Resolved, That a special committee j ed credit for having endeavored in of five members be appointed by the every good faith to see that preelec tpeaker of the house of representa-1 tion promises should be carried out. tlves to bit during the sesf ions of the i His whole soul was in the fight. His house and during the recess of con- j defeat at the hands of the lobbies car gress for the purpose of investigating ried the bitterest humiliation and and reporting to congress the facts in disappointment. He was a changed connection wi'h the operation of any ; man all the remaining years of his lobby or lobbies in Washington; said committer shall inquire into the sources whence any such lobby or lobbies are supplied with funds and the amount of funds so contributed; and shall also ascertain where and how these funds are expended and for what immediate and ultimate pur pose; and shall go into a general in life. In a letter to Mr. Catchings. a Mississippi congressman, be used the quotation alluded to. It should be easy for everyone to realize that Pres ident Wilson, in the courageous fight he is making against the lobbies in Washington, is simply trying to pre vent special privilege frm again de priving the American people of a quiry to learn the methods by which well-earned victory, any lobby seeks to Influence legisia- i If the sugar lobbyists should suc tion lu congress. j "ped in having the tariff restored to If members of congress were to al- sucar, the sugar trust and the men low themselves to be guided by the back "f the sugar lobbies would each views of the lobbyists, they would year draw down dividends amounting conclude that the Deople back horns nut wnere wouic injs money come from? The answer to this question Is were not in good faith when they voted for tariff revision downward. Or. if they were in good faith at the j ne milk In the lobby-controversy co time, that they have since changed 1 coanut. The millions that would go their n,ind. decldin the do not de-! annually to the sugar magnates would sire the monopolies of the tariff trusts ! not drP from v w'le sk- but would interfered with come from the consumers the men. But President Wilson Is not being I wonien cd "en of the United fooled. Nor is the average member s?,ate8 who Uf e puSaf- , t of congress. They know that for every I The lobb' issue Pla n' If the man who beseeches them ia Washing-1 lobbyists win out in their fight to ton to retain the tariff on sugar Prsuad members of congress to for- lh.r. .r. nlno hundred .nd ninetv. ulelr Promises 10 me people ana nine of their constituents who are cot writing letters, but who demand that promises mads to them before elec tion be kept after election, and espe cially the downward revision of the tariff on the vital necessaries of life, uch as sugar. 3 "Forget It NO MORE INDIGESTION NO MORE CONSTIPATION NO MORE BILIOUSNESS If you will only keep the di gestive system working prop erly by the regular use of HOSTETTER'S STOMACH BITTERS y You should try it today f slap the tax back on sugar, the con sumers must go on contributing to the coffers of the sugar trost by pay- ting artificially high prices for sugar. And if the sugar lobbyists do not suc ceed, these millions will be saved to American consumers. Thus it will be seen that the con sumers have something at stake in framing of a tariff bill as well as sugar barons. If the sugar lobbyists should succeed, lone of the principal beneficiaries would j be the same old sugar trust which not 60 very long ago stole some $2,000,000 : from thegovernment In customs du- ties b deliberately placing steel ; spring! in 14 pairs of scales, so that thejsr importation of sugar w ould be ormeiehed and the rnvernrr.ent Preheated. Caught red-handed, the trust j was forced to disgorge most of the ytuuuci, iiu a ir uuurniuKS were I CTjlthe U'tlie M "i If 50,000 votes. While the platform did not specifically indorse the removal of the duty on sugar, it indorsed all the actions of the last democratic house, one of which was to pass a free sugar bill, and Representative Keating ran on a straight free sugar platform. It appears evident that Colo rado, with its extensive sugar indus try, voted for free sugar by a plural ity of 45,000. The special session of congress met. The tariff bill, providing for free su gar, was introduced. And then what happened? From all parts of Colo rado letters began pouring in on that state's senators and representatives protesting against free sugar. So nu merous and vehement were these let ters and telegrams that they appar ently indicated a tremendous revulsion of feeling in the state toward the sugar tariff. Any honest legislator might well hesitate before he voted against such an overwhelming ex pression of public opinion. Senator Thomas, however, went be hind the returns. He got in communi cation with Thomas S. Price, an in telligent man formerly emploved by the Great Western Sugar company at Longmont, Colo., w ho told the senator how the fictitious public sentiment was manufactured. He wrote: You will no doubt receive letters from employees of the factory here, as they are compelled in an underhanded way either to write them or take chances of losing their jobs by refus ing. Price Inclosed a form letter which the sugar companies ordered their em ployees' to copy, sign, and mail to Washington. This letter does not speak for the sugar company but is all fcr the poor farmer and the poor wage earner. After instructing the employes how to direct the letters, the instructions were: A letter to Hon. Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, Wash ington, D. C, will do a lot of good. If you are a democrat, tell them so; it will carry more weight. In thi3 way thousands of emp.oyees of Colorado sugar mills have been influenced" to write to their senators Keefe. commissioner of immigration. who went to Hawaii at the request of Samuel Goinpers, president of the American Federation of Labor, to study the industrial conditions. The report, however, was never published. It was suppressed by the Taft admin istration. The bureau of labor sent a man to Hawaii to get out another re port on labor conditions. This report flattered the planters and was published. The government investigator who wrote the whitewashing report was shortly thereafter given a good job with the Hawaiian territorial govern ment, while Secretary N'agel later bus ied himself preparing charges looking to the removal of Keefe, Senator Reed, however, resurrected the suppressed report and brought it before the lobby committee. The planters have been loudly proclaim ing the fact that no peonage exists in Hawaii. After reading the report, I am convinced it would be better for the wretched plantation and sugar mill laborers if they were peons or actual slaves. They would be better treated by their owners. Wages run from $S per month for children up to $26 for w hite adult men. Hours are 10 and 12 a day. The em ployes live in miserable shacks pro vided by the companies. The men buy food from company stores, where prices range from 10 to TO per cent higher than average food prices in New York, Washington, Chicago and San Francisco. The .food is sold to to rank high among the important food products? The Louisiana cane sugar produoers claim that free sugar will wipe 'out their industry. The beet sugar pro ducers of the United States have an investment of about $61,000,000, ac cording to the report of the Hardwick committee, which investigated the American sugar, industry last year. The beet interests are claiming ir reparable damage to be caused by free sugar. The Hawaiians, the Porto Ricans, the domestic beet sugar pro ducers and the Louisiana interests are maintaining in Washington the tariff lobby against whose insidious activi ties 'President Woodrow Wilson so justly complains. These lobbyists contend that free sugar means ruin for the American sugar industry. And yet the administration is not halted. Why? There is a basic principle underly ing the democratic determination to remove the tax from sugar. The or dinary man does not understand the question at all clearly. The sugar question has seldom been plainly stat ed to the average citizen." Y'et when the conditions tinder which sugar 1s now produced are clearly understood, the free sugar principle becomes as simple as it is just. It then becomes astonishing that this country ever taxed 6ugar. To protect this product is the very opposite of common busi ness judgment. I"shall therefore endeavor to explain the free sugar argument as" I see it and the effect free sugar may be ex pected to have on the different phases of the industry in this country. In the first place, what of the importance of sugar as food? In a recent bulletin issued by the department of agriculture sugar is given a place among the three or four most important foodstuffs, following af ter meat and bread. In the human diet it is the great energy producer. And so it is the great food of the working- man. Experiments have shown that whiie large quantities of sugar give dyspepsia to idlers and indoor workers it is readily digested by men who do manual work, supplying them with stores of physical energy, Sugar as we know it, however. Is a commodity of the last century. It was formerly produced only in India and Europeans supposed it to be a gum which exuded from trees. Culti vation of sugar cane began in this country in 1751, but only in the last 75 years has it come into general use, The world production is now over 16,- 000,000 tons, of which over 4,000,000 tons, or 81 pounds per capita, are con sumed annually in the United States, In the latter part of the eighteenth century a German chemist discovered that sugar could be made from beets This was merely a scientific curiosity until Napoleon, realizing the absurd ity of fighting England's army while France was paying great annual sums to British sugar producers, which money England was using to equip new armies and navies, by imperial edict established a large number of su gar mills in France and ordered the French peasants to produce ail the sugar consumed in the country. This was the beginning of the beet- sugar industry, which has thrived un til now the beet-sugar production of the world nearly equals that from cane. Sugar-beet growing began in the United States in the late nineties Compare the total investment in the American 6ugar industry w-ith the amount the duty on sugar costs the American people annually and we pick up the clue explaining why, despite the presence of sugar lobbies in Wash ington, the z-cent tarut tax was re moved from sugar. Exclusive of land and farm animals which can be used in other farming opeaations, the total investment sugar in the United States is about $100,000,000. For the benefit of the few men owning this industry th American people are taxed annually in the increased price cf sugar $140, 000,000, or $40,000,000 more than the total sugar investment. It is also $40,000,000 more than the total an nual value of the American sugar crop, including its by-products. To the individual this tax amounts to $1.50, or an annual charge of $7.50 on a family of average size. Since 1897 the protection to the sug ar industry has cost American con sumers $2,000,000,000. But if the pub lic got value received for this sum Make Tracks Pay Use Keep them busy, and properly LUBRICATED. Polarine is made inONE GRADE that lubricates every type of motor in every kind of car or truck. It mcintaina the correct lubricating body at any motor speed or heat, and flows perfectly in zero weather. r It keeps every friction point protected with a dura ble slippery film. Millions of parts have run for years on Polarine practically without wear. The World's Oil Specialists make it after 50 years . experience with every kind of lubricating problem and a study of all makes and types of cars. Polarine is worth to you many times its cost, be cause it stops the largest part of motor truck depreci ation. Try it for three months and note the saving in repairs. STANDARD OIL COMPANY (AH rKDIASA OOBrOKATIOHl Maker of Special Lubricating Oil for Leading EnginetrinM mmd Induttriai Works of tho World H05) The sugar in cane is called sucrose by chemists. Louisiana cane is only 6 to 7 per cent sucrose, while Cuban cane is 11 to 14 per cent and Hawaiian from 14 to 15 per cent sucrose, or over twice as much sugar in the same amount of cane. In Cuba sugar cane grows naturally and Is planted once every 10 years. In Louisiana the cane must be re planted every year. There is never frost in Cuba; in Louisiana the cane must be cut in October before ma turity to escape frost, thus accounting for the lower sucrose content. Louis iana sugar mills are antiquated, while some of the Cuban factories are the latest and most efficient in the world. And so, though Louisiana wages are lower than those paid in Cuba, it costs nearly 4 cents to produce a pound of raw sugar in Louisiana against a Cuban cost of 2 cents. Said Representative T. W. Hardwick, of Georgia, the great sugar expert of the house. In order to produce a cane-sugar crop valued at $25,000,000, our Louis iana friends insist that we ought to continue a system of taxation that costs the American people $140,000,000 in the increased price of sugar. It is undemocratic, it is unfair, it is un righteous, and, so far as I am con cerned, I will never stand for a con tinuance of this policy to keep a duty on tliis great necessity of life which cannot possibly be produced in Louis iana one-half as cheaply as it can in the balance of the world. Why not continue the tariff tax on sugar in order to protect the sugar beet industry? This is the query raised by the sugar lobbies. Here is the answer It is unfair to require 90,000,000 sugar consumers to pay 2 cents a pound more for sugar than it is worth in order to protect the sugar-beet indus try, because, although the sugar-beet factories are overcapitalized approx imately $80,000,000, or 57 per cent, they are paying large dividends and making millions in profits. The greatest lobliy ever known in Washington is now being financed by the beet-sugar manufacturers. Money is being spent like water, and th3 senate investigation has shown a scandalous misuse of publicity and the postal franks of certain special privilege senators. If money can do it, this lobby will defeat free sugar, not because the industry faces ruin, but because the sugar barons wish to continue to pay enormous dividends in the worst watered industry in the United States. The high sugar duties of the successive Dingley and Payne tariffs .have made possible an over capitalization in this industry without parallel in American financial history. The total capitalization of all the beet-sugar companies is $141,000,000. The industry is peculiar in that it is mittee estimated the actual Invest ment at $60,712,000. Thus, of the beet-sugar capitalisa tion, from 7S to SO millions of dollars is pure water, or 67 per cent. J. Pier pont Morgan in his prime never poured water into stocks at this rate. Even the Steel trust achievement could not equal it.. Some of the individual companies exceed even this figure. The Great Western Sugar Co., capitalized at $30, 000,000. is worth $10,600,000. The American Beet Sugar Co., with $20, 000.000 capitalization, represents an investment of $5,300,000. The plants of the Michigan Sugar Co., which is sued over $11,000,000 capHal stock. can be duplicated for $5,450,000. But In spite of these fictitious val uations, the sugar companies have been able to pay high dividends on all their capital stock. The sugar in vestigation showed that the Great Western Sugar Co., besides paying 7 per cent dividends on its preferred stock and 5 per cent on common, amassed a surplus of $9,000,000 in five years, making an annual net profit on actual investment of 36 per' cent, or 182 per cent in five years. This company actually had to juggle its figures to keep down dividends on stock over half of which was water. The American Beet Sugar Co. made $9,600,000 on an actual investment of $5,300,000 in seven years. The Mlch igvn Sugar Co. paid back in four years every dollar of real money invested In it. The great crime of modern finance is overcapitalization. A charter grant ed to a watered concern is simply ti charter to rob the poor and the help less, for obviously either prices must be raised to an unnatural level or wages must be reduced in order that dividends may be paid on money that is not invested. The beet-sugar in dustry is one of the worst of offend ers, yet its great lobby is demanding that the-working people of this court try shall be taxed $1.50 per year in order that they may continue to pay dividends on watered stock. in revenue to defray the ccst of gov- J'""'""5 , J has been worked out that it co.sts to ernment there would not be so much complaint But the actual duty col lected in 16 years has been only $800,000,000. The balance, $1,200,000, 000, has been a bonus, pure and sim ple, wrung from the poor to create a new group of American millionaires. Leaving aside the principle that sugar as a prime food necessity should come untaxed to the American the plantation stores by Honolulu pubiic, the production cf cane suar wholesale houses, owned for the most part by the plantation owners. Doctors employed by the companies have gone to visit sick laborers 24 to 48 hours after being called, sometimes only to find corpses instead of vsl- in this country is an artificial, unnat ural industry. There are two types of sugar pro duction from sugar beets, grown in many sections of the country, and from sugar cane, grown along the Gulf build a factory $1,000 for each ton of beets to be consumed by the fac tory per day. Thus a mill with 100 tons of beet capacity per day costs $100,000. Now the total daily capacity of all the beet-sugar factories in America is 63,550 tons, showing that the total actual investment is not over $63,550,- 000. , Indeed, the Hardwick sugar com- JUDGE FOR YOURSELF. Which Is Better Try an Experiment or Profit by a Rock Island Citi zen's Experience. Something new is an experiment. Must be proved to be as represent ed. The statement of a manufacturer la not convincing proof of merit. But the endorsement of friends is. Now supposing you had a bad back, A lame, weak or aobing one. Would you experiment on it? You will read of many so-called cures. Endorsed by strangers from far away places. It's different when the endorsement comes from home. Easy to provo local testimony. Head this case: J. L. Williams, engineer, 831 Forty third street. Rock Island, 111., says: "Doan's Kidney Pills were beneficial to me and I gladly recommend tnera. I had backache and my kidneys were irregular in action. Doan's Kidney Pills made me entirely well." For 6ale by all dealers. Price 50 cents. Foster-Milburn company, Buf falo, New York, sole agents for the United States. Remember the name Doan's and take no other. (Advertisement.) tients. Laborers are called insulting coast cf Louisiana and Texas. names and treated like dogs by field bosses. "In a desperate effort to keep down the wage rate of all employes " the planters are spending huge sums importing Filipinos for laborers. These workmen are the dregs of the Philip pine population, gathered from jails and almshouses, the very young and the very old, weak, and racked with disease. The imported laborer, arriving pen niless, is held in actual subjugation. It is y am! tent to jail acd relea fjtaff small portion of ' IT J jBut none of the million urging tutm to vote unable to escape from the island, against free sugar. Senator Thomas which is possible only to the hardier charged that a similar campaign was ! individuals, who can ndure starva carned on among the sugar beet tion while ucin? i mnrr Pint sent to jail and released after serv- j growers and with banks and commer-jthe rich owners have deFised a crafiy or tneir sentence. 'ai associations, ell of whom have -homestead'' svstem. whereby in ex ionaire sug arnag- been adding their letters to the flood Jchauge for an acre of land received possible, indeed probable, that beet sugar production has now progressed to a point where it can be called a natural industry. If so, it does not need protection in order to survive. But there is no natural justification for cane-sugar production in the Unit ed States. It is possible to grow banana3 and tea in New England in hothouses. Yet not even the most rabid protectionist oouiu auvucaie a piuu.uiu.e uuiy uu bananas or tea, raising the prices of j these foods ten times above what j they are now, in order that tea and j bananas might be produced with prof- j it in hothouses in New Englaad. j In a somewhat smaller degree cane- j sugar growing Is a hothouse industry. Northern Steamboat Co Between Rock Island and St. Paul 4 6 i , t-Jt t4ry ! ' A Plan for your vacation now on the Trl-Cities Favorite Steamer Morn ing Star. Commencing May 31. Leaves Rock Island for St Paul every Saturday at 3 p. m. WHITE COLLAR LINE STEAMERS BETWEEN ROCK ISLAND, BURL1N3TQN. KEOKUK AND QUINCY. Take a trip to the Big Dam at Keokut. Steamer Helen Blair leaves every Monday. Wednesday and rriday at 4 p. sa. Call or write for il lustrated folder. Office foot of 19th St. R. W. LAMONT, Agent, Phone 183. a